December 28, 2010

Thank you Scription readers! For coming here once in a while and leave your comments. I feel thankful for the abundance of my life, to be able to share and build friendships based on things and ideas we treasure. I am privileged to have great colleagues and bosses with me every single day at work to tackle challenges. Wish you good luck and health in all aspects of your lives.

December 24, 2010

This week at Christmas peak is a routine data study in the afternoon and store visits in the evening/night time. I'm not carrying my laptop around so it's a What's in my bag - lightweight store visit edition.

Traveler's Notebook carries a sketch book containing drawings of my next leather project (a soft + hard messenger bag). I'm really having fun with the new Palomino Blackwing pencil I newly acquired, the tip is protected by a metal pencil cap. I also used the linen bag that came with Traveler's Notebook to carry a small pouch of lavender herb for relaxation.

December 23, 2010

I'm not exactly a pencil addict like MANY, and I'm not going to do a review here. A while ago I knew I was going to get a pack of the Palomino Blackwing so I refrained from reading all these reviews (at the bottom of this post), wanting to have my own impression of this handsome looking pencil from a company I admire - California Cedar Products Company.

I've been using their Palomino brand pencils since 2006 and love the smoothness which particularly fits my handwriting style. Today I finally received the Blackwing remade, for a pack of 12 pieces I immediately shared 3 to an artist Bubi Au Yeung and 1 to an architect whom happens to be my little brother. They both love it.

My impression: it is very rich and dark, smooth like melting butter great for sketch and draw. It doesn't work for my handwriting though, I tend to skip strokes because of the reduced friction I normally needed from HB pencils to control my flying fingers. I heard that Blackwing is relatively expensive (yes I refused to check the price even now), so I assumed they could've done better with the gold lettering on the pencil body coz the normal Palomino doesn't have such problem with gold specks falling off, it is particularly visible on a black body. Handsome, really handsome looking pencil with such distinguished flat eraser head. Did I say handsome?

Tie a dozen of Blackwing with gold or red ribbon, stuff the bunch into a box filled with straws/twigs, makes a perfect and beautiful gift to your dear friends! Merry Christmas!

December 16, 2010

The much anticipated Tunewear iPad case called Tunefolio URBAN finally arrived our stores, Hong Kong is the first place in the world to have it. The predecessor Tunefolio (HK$349), which won the Good Design Award from Japan, was our bestselling iPad case series ever. Instead of faux leather, URBAN selling at HK$399, features even more durable nylon, very slim profile with detachable strap which allows you to carry across your shoulder.

The usual flexible stand position of Tunefolio remains with additional velcro so you can fix the iPad position at your desired viewing angle.

I was using my iPad with the original Tunefolio to stock taking fixture delivery when we were setting up our new Langham Place LOG-ON store. I wish I had URBAN at that time coz that added strap is a really useful feature not many iPad case have, you don't need to worry where to lay your iPad in public place when all of a sudden you need both hands to do something else in that kind of situation.

This cool new iPhone gadget arriving not long ago were being sold like hot cakes in our stores and we went out of stock for a few days, luckily we are able to grab some remaining stocks from their factory.

Hashy Top-in's Phone x Phone is an all-in-one charging/sync/speaker/handset station with a nice matt rubber coating, which allows you to dock your iPhone to charge and sync while having the added benefit of reducing your brain's exposure to cell phone radiation (or more scientifically known as the level of cell phone specific absorption rate (SAR), which measures the quantity of radio frequency energy that is absorbed by the body).

The button on the back of the handset is used to end calls. When music is playing, you can use it to jump forward/backward to the next/previous song. Black, white, pink, yellow and blue colors are available, each selling at HK$238. It works for iPhone 3G/3Gs/4. Tell you what, Pink is our best seller so far, if you can't grab it this weekend, you won't get it as a Xmas gift in time.

I feel terribly proud to live and be born in this magic place called Hong Kong. The hub of many things, the opportunities it unveils, the speed and flexibility it embraces…. . In the movie The Book of Eli, Danzel Washington acting as Eli said to a young woman "People had more than they needed, we had no idea what was precious or wasn't, we threw away things people would kill each other for now."

We are definitely in the era of abundance now. We have things people before us (and after?) would be in awe of. That's how treasurable these "things" are. Well, refrained myself from being too far away in thoughts, here's what I got earlier this month from small shops here in Hong Kong: Waxed nylon thread @HK$50, leather buttons HK$63, Mink oil HK$36, metal rings HK$26.

The other stuffs I got earlier are just around HK$10 each. Thank you for letting me to live in this time and this place.

In the game of competing to be the smoothest pen in the world, Pentel's Vicuna seems to have won the first round being highly popular in Asia market. Friends at Pentel continue to introduce exceptional products to us near the end of November this year. Among them, Ain Stein is most worth mentioning IMHO.

Yes you heard it right, Pentel people love to play with product names, remember the Slicci name's origin? This time a new Ain pencil lead line called Ain Stein was born and named after its supreme scientific wisdom behind (ehh Einstein you know). Pentel claims to have used strengthened molecular structure to make the leads stronger than other brands, yet having better darkness and stronger smear resistance.

Well, I am no expert in 'leads', but would love to do a double-blind test to see for myself if the claim is really true. In the meantime, do visit Dave's Mechanical Pencils blog to see his review, check out the comments from readers too :) Anyhow, the containers are beautiful.

December 14, 2010

Big as a giant, small as an elf, you face difficulties. Its how you deal with them that matters. A dear friend Steve Light, children book author, released a new book called The Christmas Giant which tells a story of just that. I got it from Amazon last week.

I read the book to my kid a few times already, but always at the end we would switch to applying the concepts in the book to create another story together. Giant being me and elf being my kid we ventured into a forest of huge Chinese cabbages, an earthquake came and the gift we prepared fell deep into the abyss, elf being small jumped right into the crack to grab it while I lowered him using my stretchable arm, etc etc. We never gave up in our stories, we found duality all over the places, we came out with results far better than what we planned. I hope this plants deep into my kid's mind: It is through difficulties and failures we find strength to create an extraordinary future.

(Hickory Dickory Doc by Steve Light, in his home)

Here's something you don't know about Steve. He carves wood into blocks of cute figures, they can be put inside boxes he dubbed Storyboxes, one story one box. You can imagine the anticipation and excitement from kids when he slowly unboxes the blocks and revealing the stories one piece at a time.

I was searching for a photo I needed from my Flickr stream tonight and found that I have been significantly producing less and less drawings or paintings. Well perhaps its because of my new found hobby of leather craft, but sketching really gives me the release I need, so I'll find time to do more.

If you remember this, it was a sketch I did 3 years ago annoyed by stupid hotel arrangement by the company I work for. Situation gets better since then, daily allowance went up at least, so as usual, I am not complaining. Interesting to look back on yourself once in a while isn't it? #2 Worst Hotel Arranged by Company.

December 12, 2010

We have been selling refurbished Polaroid SX-70 cameras in our stores for a few years now with no customer return thanks to the skillful technicians at SweetRoad. Yesterday a customer brought back her SX-70 having problem ejecting film. I did some search and found out the cause/fix to share here.

Symptom: camera works fine, shutter can be released, battery is not dead, SX-70 is able to eject the black card but not the films.

Solution: The pick arm fails to grab and push the film towards the rollers. The black card is thicker and has a small piece of plastic film attached so the pick arm can hold on to it and push, but not for the film. To see the problem clearly, take an empty cartridge, remove the front cover (the side facing the rollers) and insert to the camera, without closing the 'jaw', look inside the film cartridge which is now inside the camera and locate the pick arm on your top left hand corner. The pick arm's 'hook' should be bent downward to level with the first film. Doing so requires some innovation on your side, a long tweezer may work but you need to find a supporting point in order to bend the metal pick arm. I used a small object to create a supporting point and then use a stick to bend the arm. Be careful not to scratch the mirror nearby.

Now after I fixed our customer's camera in my own way, I found this youtube video perfectly explaining how to do it using chopsticks, i.e. you can skip everything I wrote above hahhaa. Hope this helps you too.

Walter Isaacson: Steve JobsLove hearing the stories all over again, some of them especially what happened in the past few years are new to me. Most importantly it is a closer portrait of Steve than all other books about him. Isaacson recorded audios during his interview with Steve, check out 60 minutes special and you will hear Steve's own voice. RIP Steve. (****)